Critique Circle Reviews 

A very good site for experienced writers seeking direct review feedback

Hit or miss on the critiques, but the ones that hit HIT. There are some outstanding people on this website, including dozens of traditionally published writers from all backgrounds. It's takes some doing to find the keepers, but once you do your writing will improve dramatically. Don't be discouraged by bad or clueless critiques. They're not representative of the whole experience. I started from scratch two years ago on CC, and in April of this year I was published in a literary journal, all thanks to the people on this website.

Forums are also hit or miss. They can be welcoming or extremely toxic depending on the day. My advice: stay away and focus on the queues. That's the real CC experience. In the past year or so, some of the most toxic members have moved on, making the forums feel a lot chiller than they used to, but I still recommend avoiding them.

Terrible and culturally stunted beta's with limited worldview of literature. This is an awful model, not only is the forum toxic, but it's best to find readers to read your work not writers who are forced to read for feedback. I spent about two weeks on that site before I left. so awful I have to write it thrice-"awful."

Had a terrible experience due to moderator and lack of maintenance.

For anyone interested, make use of what's free and don't pay for premium. I did. I was a great customer. Bought the most expensive thing available to support the site. Worked to try to make the community better. I regret it. Don't ignore the low reviews. They are true. You will not be able to make a difference.

So, let's go through it:

Positives:

1. There are some good people here. Pay attention to the people who stay away from the forums. Those are the folks who are good. If you can form a relationship with some of those people then that is good. Ignore the ones that never write anything and just troll the forums, there are a bunch of those.

Negatives:

1. They are aware of the low ratings on Trustpilot. They organized a whole thread around sending people here to write 5-star reviews. You can see their names here and you will run into them on there. Think about who you're dealing with that would actually do that.

2. The forums are bad, toxic. It will blow your mind. There are some very opinionated people who are looking to get into fights, others trying to get you to clickbait, affiliate links, politic trolls, etc... You've heard of those dark corners of the internet that turn people loopy. This is it. It's some weird stuff. But the problem is a couple of these are friends with the owner and got elevated to "moderator" and they power trip. I've seen them modify people's posts, withhold critiques from one individual to another because they didn't like pictures and exclamation points, try to gaslight people they are arguing with to pretend these people were the ones that asked them to kill their topic (I'm serious, a moderator did this right in front of everyone, we called him out, and he kept on going) and they especially get upset if you say anything untoward about the site, like ask for bug fixes. But the real problem is they have access to your stories. I repeat they have access to your work. Nothing stops them from going to your private spaces. You do not want to trust these livewires, they are not stable.

3. The site is in maintenance mode. The owner hasn't updated the site in years, doesn't respond to requests or bug fixes in any noticeable way. He rarely makes an appearance. He's essentially done with it and made that decision long ago. It's just there until EC2 costs are more than the subs. It doesn't make much money, so that means he has to put even less effort in to justify keeping it around.

4. Membership is trending down. There are always newbies trying it out but they don't stay. The number that stay are dwindling. When I started a year ago our active user count 110+ simultaneous users (that's just people that left their browser open) and now it's getting into the 60-70s many days. It's especially noticeable at night, down in the 30s. The numbers on their "About page" claiming they have 5.7K active members is fudged. There are about a 150 stories/chapters up for review on a good week, not including newbies who generally don't continue.

5. They lie about refunds. Before buying a subscription, I read a help article they had that said they do. It's a lie. They do not. They will make up random reasons why they cannot do it for your case. You'll pretty much find out their entire repository of help articles is wrong/false (i.e. see not maintained above). They are located in Iceland, outside local jurisdiction. Buyer beware.

6. It's managed very badly. No one cares. Everyone power trips. The community is not good. None are successful writers. Successful ones left because there is too much liability interacting with personalities this unstable. They sound nice at the beginning. Just wait.

To the guy who responded:

What are you even talking about? Did you mean to reply to a different review?

One, you have to give critiques to get credit for posting to get critiques. Two, people who are there are rude and will tear down your writing if you're not their audience. I had people tell me that my writing is bad. Then I look at their work which is hardly better or worst.

While there are benefits, there are a few things to keep in mind: (1) unlike other platforms that will close a submission for a review after it has received a specific number of critiques, this platform closes it after one week. I’ve had one submission receive twelve critiques and others only 1. This is not worth it if you’re paying the monthly fee and if you’re needing to do more critiques to qualify for submission than you actually receive. (2) Critiquers range pretty drastically in skill level. You can mark it as not for people under 18 to review but you’ll still get an onslaught of people who like to hear their own voices more than actually read (but that’s typical anywhere). This really is more of an issue if you’re struggling with my first point. That one critique you received that one week might come from a self-important beginner or you might get twelve expert critiques. You never know. And that in itself doesn’t make it worth the price. You’re better off with something like scribophile.

In fairness, the critique system is great. What's not so great is the hostility on the forums.
A member so ergrigously crossed personal boundaries, and I didn't react well. Members responses were disturbing to say the least. I don’t think it's any way acceptable to bring up how much a person critiques. I shouldn't have to justify myself. I was attacked over my reasons why, and quite frankly, as a result no longer felt safe to participate as a member, which is a shame. I had fond memories of the place from before I went on hiatus. So much so, I returned.
I was disappointed to recieve no response after I emailed the administrators my experience, though granted I had deleted my profile at that point, and cancelled my payment.
Straight up, it's unacceptable to pull a strangers stats up, and chastise them on it. The responses after I revealed why I went on hiatus were callous and insensitive, and apparently that kind of behaviour is condoned and even valued on this site.
I don't usually bang on about other people's behaviour on internet but frankly I was shocked by the crossing of boundaries, and judgmental behaviour. I shouldn't have to justify myself for taking time away from a hobby.
Up until that point, it had been an enjoyable experience, but I don’t care how ambitious a member is, a hard line was crossed, and none of the forum members seemed to recognise it.
It was hostile, and bullying behaviour, and it seemed rather entrenched, and accepted, judging by the responses of other folk.
Not for me. I've seen some poor behaviour from writers over the years, but I'm not willing to tolerate that. Especially when I paying for the experience.

It's not perfect, but it's still one of the best out there.

Been on there for a couple of years now and still enjoy going on there.

The hook is useful for seeing if your opening is catchy enough. The forums have plenty of knowledge and differing points of view. Some crits aren't that useful, some have nuggets of gold. You just need to get enough crits, and develop relationships with good critters and peers who seem to have the knowledge you need at that point in time.

Still the best writing site around!
I've now put four novels through the site for critique feedback in three years and am preparing the fifth.

I have chosen to pay the small amount (equivalent to a cup of coffee at a cafe once a month) to get some extra features, but the generous site owners provide a lot for free. It's perfectly possible to put novels through absolutely free and get the same amount of feedback as if paying.

Out of the thousands of members there are critiquers of all levels of experience, so useful for novel development as well as reader reaction. You do have to put in the hard yards and crit other people's stories to 'return the favour', so if you don't want to do any work then you're better off paying for feedback elsewhere, but critiqueing other people's work also improves one's own writing anyway.

The forums allow you to ask questions on anything to do with writing. The moderators are wonderful at preventing people going off-track with things like political rants, as well as stopping abusive posts. It's the best moderated site I've found for fairness.
I can see why the site is recommended by so many writers, bloggers, and other sites.

I find the site to be immensely helpful. Feedback is almost always constructive and courteous. Moderators respond to issues in a timely manner.

Critique Circle is a place to get honest feedback on your writing. If you work hard to critique others, you will receive the same back. It is not a magic bullet for traditional publication or self-publishing sales, but it is a helpful learning tool. I have been a member for twenty years and I'm now reaping the benefits with several short story competition wins and other successes. I'm grateful to everyone who has critted me, past and present.

I’ve found this a supportive and beneficial site overall. It’s really easy to use. You critique a story, earn a credit and then use 3 credits to share your own work. The critiques I’ve had are constructive and helpful, and nothing I’ve ever received has strayed into unkindness or toxicity. I’ve learned loads about my writing strengths and bad habits from receiving critiques and listening to the feedback and expertise of others. There’s a general sense of wanting to help. There are some arguments in the forums but the moderators keep an eye on things, especially contentious discussions, and there are easy ways to report anything you find upsetting. Threads can also be muted. I definitely recommend this site whether you write short pieces or have a novel ready for feedback. If you’re shy and like a bit more control over who sees your work you can upgrade your membership and have a private, invitation only queue but that’s absolutely not essential.

CC is the best place I've found to get detailed and honest feedback from a large and diverse community of fellow writers.

I've used the site for many years, and while I don't always agree with the decisions made by the mods and admins, they do make a strong effort to be impartial and to keep the community as drama-free and inclusive as possible. Mostly, they succeed.

I've had a few minor account troubles over the years, and on each occasion the admins were polite, friendly, and went out of their way to make sure everything was made right.

The peer-to-peer nature of the site means it can take a while to find compatible partners. But if you invest that time, CC can be a very useful resource.

Highly recommended.

My first novel needed all the help I could get and Critique Circle has been a priceless resource--better than writing classes. It costs nothing (unless you pay for the extra features) and I was able to post all 45 chapters of my novel in sequence, and receive incredibly helpful advice on each one.

In addition, giving critiques (and improving that skill) is almost as instructive as receiving.

Like any online community, some contributors are more helpful than others. But for every crit that I thought was unhelpful or obnoxious, there were at least 5 that were great.

If you want serious feedback about your writing (and you're not just fishing for praise, which some writers definitely are) Critique Circle is an amazing resource.

Be honest and straight with members. This forum plants all sorts of trickery, even among the reviewers you're not sure who is a flake and who isn't. They seem to be selecting some for kudies to strike a balance of impartiality and buying their loyalty. I've been on it many years, and I'm glad I went with another and it was interesting the comparison. One really provides true feedback, demonstrating with examples qualifying them as legit. Guess which one?
Notice how some say oh how they published their novel from the experience. Anyone can publish a novel these days. Heck, Amazon make something even from the greenest tale. But how many have they sold, they failed to mention. There are reasons why folk omit important parts. I've published three and I've still a long way to go. Truth is, on amazon the average author is lucky to sell more than three a month. Green stars toward the end of the reviews. Strange pattern. Where do you see this trickery. They seem to be ending it on a positive note so that you are filled with optimism that detracts from the many more negatives reviews....

I joined a few years ago and, after having a first bad experience (promised rewards didn't load), I recently put in some more work in preparation for posting a work for critique. After spending EIGHT HOURS critiquing, surprise! You can only post novel chapters if you pay. So they take your work and monetize it, and then you get shafted. That's called a scam.

They ban you for "Mean spirited critiques". I said part of a story was "boring" and the person made a big deal of it, blocked me and reported me.
What is a site worth if you can't even say part of a story is boring?
Kindergarten. I'm glad I didn't pay for pro membership as I was planning to.

Edit: I didn't say the whole story was boring, only the description part.

Reply to Critique Circle:
I wasn't mean spirited, I was honest. when a story goes on and on and on and on, and nothing happens, that is called boring. If I don't tell the author, the readers will.
But of course, CC wants to hang on to paying members at any cost. The complainer was a paying member, I wasn't.
CC's response says it all. They say, a place where you are honest, is "unsafe" according to them.
Don't waste your time and money on CC. It won't make a bestseller writer out of you, unless you are already one.

TRUSTPILOT IS CHEATING AND WON'T INCLUDE THIS REVIEW IN THE 1* ONES.

Pros: large community and an easy system to review other’s work and get yourown reviewed
Cons: quality of reviews is mixed, it depends on what group you fall into
I think this is a great site for a beginning writer but not helpful for an experienced one, even the helpful critiques are not much more, and sometimes quite a bit less, than many of the writing programs out there like Autocrit and Prowritingaid. I found myself spending a lot of time reviewing to get a few useful nuggets.

They banned me. After 4 years of my entire family using multiple accounts on our one computer, they banned my account.
They emailed my relative about multiple accounts, and she assured them it was one computer and the families accounts. After that, they banned me.

I have emailled them and have yet to hear back. My writing was on that website and now I can't access feedback because they won't believe me and my family are separate people on one computer.
Terrible customer service!

Edit to reply to critique circle: That's what I'm complaing about. My family had an account each on one computer and you merged them, so now we don't have an account each. I can't just use another family members account to write my stuff on. It wouldn't make sense to any critters

I regret singing up for this service. A complete waste of money. The community is strange and the moderators are terrible.